Why We Ride

Women Writers on the Horses in Their Lives

Edited by Verna DreisbachForeword by Jane Smiley

Women and their horses — a symbiotic relationship based on trust, camaraderie, friendship, and love. In Why We Ride, Verna Dreisbach collects the stories of women who ride, sharing their personal emotions and accounts of the most important animals in their lives.

This collection of stories includes the heartfelt thoughts of a range of women — those who rode as children, those who spent their girlhood years dreaming of owning a pony, and those who have made a lifelong hobby or career out of riding. Each story reveals how horses have made an impact in the lives of these women. With a foreword by best-selling novelist Jane Smiley, Why We Ride offers a reflective view on the relationships between women and horses.

". . . when you have known a horse all his life, when he is your dream horse, and when you become so aware of his idiosyncrasies that you feel them in your own body as if they were your own feelings . . ."